LS EcoEnergy to focus on rare earths and undersea cables, while also pursuing overseas partnerships (South Korea)

LS EcoEnergy (formerly LS Cable Asia), a subsidiary of South Korean electric cable giant LS Cable, recently announced its mid- to long-term growth strategy. In addition to its existing electric power and communication cable businesses, the company is also expanding into a new business of undersea cables.
The company announced that it will focus on the three main businesses: the semiconductor and rare earth businesses. It plans to increase its overall sales from the three businesses from 700 billion won (approximately 79,736,580,000 yen) in 2023 to 100 billion won (approximately 100 billion yen) in 2030.
The company has set a goal of increasing its rare earth reserves by 2.5 times to 1.8 trillion won (approximately 204.988 billion yen) by 2021. The company plans to import rare earths from Vietnam, which has the second largest rare earth reserves in the world after China.
The company will import rare earth oxides and process them into permanent magnets in South Korea. To this end, the company signed a rare earth oxide purchase agreement with Vietnamese mining company Hung Thinh Titanium Co., Ltd. in January.
The company aims to receive 200 tons of supply in 2019 and more than 500 tons from 2025. In Korea, it has established a joint venture with VAC Magnetic, a German manufacturer of permanent magnets.
We are currently building a permanent magnet factory. We plan to supply about 1,000 tons per year from 2027. Meanwhile, we are considering expanding into North America, Vietnam, and Europe for undersea cables. Recently, we have been in the United States.
The company has established a subsidiary, LS Green Link, to operate the undersea cable business, which it expects to generate sales of 367.1 billion won (approximately 41.8 billion yen) in 2030.